Metal-free C-H Activation over Graphene Oxide toward Direct Syntheses of Structurally Different Amines and Amides in Water.

Unprecedented metal-free synthesis of a variety of amines and amides is reported via amination of C(sp3)-H and C(sp2)-H bonds. The strategy involves graphene-oxide/I2-catalyzed nitrene insertion using PhINTs as a nitrene (NT) source in water at room temperature. A wide range of structurally different substrates, viz., cyclohexane, cyclic ethers, arenes, alkyl aromatic systems, and aldehydes/ketones, having an α-phenyl ring have been employed successfully to afford the corresponding nitrene insertion product in good yield, albeit low in few cases. The envisaged method has superiority over others in terms of its operational simplicity, metal-free catalysis, use of water as a solvent, ambient reaction conditions, and reusability of the catalyst.